CHENNAI - Indian women are fighting back against rape in the country, and the latest invention in their fight - "anti-rape underwear", created by a group of engineering students in India.

They claim that the novel wearable device will prevent rape and other sexual offences. The protective panties are reportedly built to deliver up to 82 electric shocks to a would-be offender when pressure sensors on the item detect unwanted force, reported Indian news agency Press Trust Of India.

The technology-assisted undergarment, named Society Harnessing Equipment, has a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) that would allow a woman at risk to be easily located.

Said Miss Manisha Mohan, who helped develop the product: "The lingerie with Global Positioning System, global system for mobile communications (GSM) and also pressure sensors is capable of sending shock waves of 3,800 kilovolts as well as alerts to parents and police.

"A person trying to molest a girl will get the shock of his life the moment pressure sensors get activated, and the GPS and GSM modules would send an SMS (to the Indian emergency number) as well as to parents of the girl."

Miss Manisha, an engineering student at SRM University in the southern Indian city of Chennai, built a prototype of the underwear with her two colleagues, Miss Rimpi Tripathi and Miss Neeladri Basu Pal. They hope to start commercial production of the device later this month.

The creation comes as India deals with a surge in sexual violence against women, highlighted by the fatal December gang rape and beating of a 23-year old physiotherapy student in Delhi.

Meanwhile, Indian police have reported a rise in the number of women applying for gun licences. They said most of the applicants are professional women, reported The Telegraph.

One officer, who asked not to be named, said that while there were 44 applications to own handguns from women in the whole of last year, they had received 21 applications in the last three months alone.

He expected the total number of licence applications to more than double this year.

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